Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood...

It's amazing how a few simple things can really brighten one's thinking and stiffen one's resolve.

A few days ago I was walking home from As Nature Intended in Ealing Broadway with my shopping, trying to put the creepy guy on the bus out of my mind and thinking how tired I was and what a good thing it was the weekend... On Saturday I got taken by a fit of baking and produced a loaf of wholemeal sunflower seed bread and some wholemeal danish pastries (which are a trifle bricklike, if truth be told, but the flavour is good). Sunday I mended two broken bracelets, and was suddenly complimented on "Gabriel Yeats" by my landlady Sandra, who has begun reading it, months after I had decided her interest had been politeness only, and says it is totally gripping. Monday evening I came home from work and got taken by a fit of painting, and I produced a whole bunch of stuff - a lot of small things and the beginnings of two larger landscapes which will need a lot of working-into. Last night I sold ten handmade greetings cards, and had a long chat with Sandra's artist friend Joanne, about collographs and craft shops and cellophane, and the properties of different types of inks versus acrylic paints, and the fear of the blank sheet/canvas/page.

And suddenly I feel as if it is all possible, after all. So perhaps it really IS New year, New Me, this time... I'd like to apend a picture of the new me here, but don't currently have one to hand. Anyway, the new me looks exactly the same as the old me.